


That Good Night

by bravest_person_in_Wonderland



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Angst, Audio 016: Storm Warning, Audio 033: Neverland, F/M, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I listened to the whole scene again for this, References Audio 049: Master, basically just Neverland part 2 track 10 but make it angstier, it's been too long since I've written Charleight yall, my feels are going all over the place, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28259526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/pseuds/bravest_person_in_Wonderland
Summary: Death appears to the Doctor every once in a while to remind him of his debt. This is one of the most painful times.
Relationships: Eighth Doctor & Charley Pollard, Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	That Good Night

**Author's Note:**

> I went hard on the italics in this one, guys.

"Hello again, Doctor."

Three words crooned in his ear send the Doctor’s senses spiraling. He had made sure Charley was comfortable in the room she had chosen aboard the TARDIS before leaving her to get some rest. It had been quite a day for her, after all, both physically and mentally. He had been trying to read, but instead his thoughts kept turning to his new companion and the paradox of her survival.

She shouldn't be alive, and thus, Death was here in the TARDIS.

The Doctor stands up, his whole body tense, and slowly turns to face her.

"Jade," he says, using that name because she's standing before him now in that form, "If you've so much as touched a hair on that girl's head-"

Jade laughs. It's a melodic, seductive sound, and he hates the way it calls to him. The unassuming face of a nonexistent servant girl twists into a glittering smile, and she crosses her arms.

"I've not gone near her," she says, too casually, "Even though I have every right to."

"What are you doing here?"

"Reminding you of your debt. You still haven't given me the life of an innocent." Death smirks. She looks deep into his eyes and is silent until she's certain he understands her meaning. "Ironic timing is my specialty, Doctor, just as much as it is yours."

* * *

Six months later the Doctor stands on the bridge of a broken time station with a staser at his feet and Charley's pleading eyes staring at him from across the room. Heaven knows he's never been able to hold up against those eyes. He picks up the staser and for a moment he thinks Sentris' spectral form, so like Charley, flickers, and in its place is a pale servant girl who haunts his dreams.

He looks directly at her and the vision is gone.

"It's alright, Doctor. I'm not afraid," Charley says with a wavering imitation of a smile, obviously meant to comfort him. She's lying, he can hear it in her voice, see it in the way she looks at him. She's terrified, and the Doctor doesn't know if there's anything he can do about it.

"It's like I said in the TARDIS," she continues, "My time is up. There is no alternative."

The Doctor clenches the fist that's not holding the godforsaken staser. There _has_ to be an alternative, this isn't the way it should be.

_No, the way it should be is "crash and burn,"_ a voice in his mind says, _in the French countryside, in October of 1929._ The voice sounds like Jade, and his gaze flicks to Sentris as if the Neverperson is going to fade away into Death at any moment.

As if she can read his thoughts, Charley keeps talking. "Oh, Doctor. You rescued me from the R-101, you gave me these last few _wonderful_ months. The things that I've seen, the places I've been -- I've lived more than I could ever have dreamed of!

"You're the sweetest, and the kindest, most wonderful man I've ever met, and I'm sorry it's come to this, and I'm sorry it has to end like this, but if the Web of Time is destroyed, then all the time I've had, everywhere I've been, all those fabulous, fantastic things we've done -- they won't ever have happened at all. Don't let those times be taken away, don't let it all go to waste... I know it's an awful, terrible thing, but... I want you to do it."

She looks at the staser in his hand and then back at his face, desperately. "Oh, Doctor, please _do it!_ Before it's too late!"

There are tears in her eyes and possibly in the Doctor’s, too, but if there are then he blinks them away because this isn't how it's going to be. He opens his mouth to tell her that, because he's in denial, because he's in denial to the point that he doesn't even realize he is.

He shakes his head. "Charley, I can't. You're my friend... and I love you. I can't look you in the eye and shoot you, no matter what."

And there it is, the bottom line, the reason that he now knows is why Jade showed up the night he saved Charley from the R-101. He's broken his deals with her twice before and this time she's going to make it worse because this time it's _Charley_ she wants him to give her, and he _loves_ Charley, and oh lord... what does that even _mean?_

"Doctor, I love you too," Charley's voice cracks _so much_ as she says it and it stabs at something in the Doctor’s hearts, and he thinks that she's the bravest person he knows as she continues on. "This is no way to say goodbye, but please- _please!_ Oh, what's wrong with you?"

She shouts it, and her voice is still breaking along with the Doctor’s heart. "You've saved the universe before, so do it again, the only way how!"

Before he can get out a word, Sentris speaks. And it _is_ Sentris, he checks. He's _been_ checking this whole time, because he doesn't trust Death not to bare her beautiful grin at him again as she watches him pay his dues to her.

"That's right, Doctor," she taunts, and all of a sudden she's _not_ Sentris anymore. Before him stands Death in all her beauty, but the Doctor is the only one who sees her as such. "It won't take much. A quick burst of staser fire and all these troubles will be over. And if your conscience pricks a little, well, it'll all have been in the noblest possible cause-"

"Oh, shut up, Sentris!" Charley snaps, making the Doctor remember that she still sees Death as an incorporeal being of dust and dreams. "You think we're alike, don't you? That's why you took my form- but we're not. We both died before our time, whether we should or we shouldn't. It just doesn't matter. The difference is, I'm grateful for every second that I've had. _'Charlotte Pollard, Edwardian Adventuress.'_ We measure our lives in love, and I've loved every minute."

For a split second it's like she's forgotten where they are and what's happening, because she glances at the Doctor with the soft grin he's come to know so well. In an instant, though, it's gone.

"You, and all the lost boys and girls in your NeverNeverland," Charley continues, "You're so fixated on what you might've missed out on, you've forgotten what living was like. I could get angry, too. I'm so scared, you know, but we're born into love, not anger. And love never dies, however brief our lives might be." She turns to the Doctor and when their eyes meet this time, it's like a closed loop of terror. _"Now,_ Doctor, do it now!"

He backpedals a half a step. "I can't, Charley, I _can't,_ I'm sorry-" He looks to Death, who raises a sardonic eyebrow, and he drops the staser.

Death rolls her eyes and in an instant is gone. In her place is Sentris again, and the Doctor wonders if he was just hallucinating.

"Pick up the staser, Leavitt," Sentris orders, and Charley shouts out a protest.

"Nonononono, I don't want it to be like this!" She cries, and the Doctor flinches because of the rawness in her voice.

Sentris ignores this, and speaks triumphantly to her brainwashed minion. "And now, Leavitt, activate the breach! Open the gateway!"

Charley makes a small noise as the technology starts to whir, and chokes out:

"Goodbye, Doctor. I hope you know what you've done-"

He squeezes his eyes shut and yes, he does know. He's broken his deal with Death again. The only thing left now, the only way he can think of to save both of the people he _loves_ the most, whatever that means, is to offer himself up to her instead.

_Is it Rassilon who watches him from the corner of his own TARDIS, who asks him with a motive-ridden gaze if this is truly the only way, or is it the servant girl Jade?_

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to _Master_ today and for some reason I latched onto Jade/Death. She's just a very interesting concept because she doesn't have a typical Doctor Who-ish hard sci-fi explanation? She doesn't get scientifically or temporally explained and that means that the Doctor actually can't truly "beat" her like he could if she was just some alien like the Nimon. So I immediately wanted to write something featuring her.
> 
> And of course, in predictable Lu fashion, Eight and Charley came to mind. I never planned on writing Eight's POV again, let alone in present-tense, but here I am.


End file.
